Frazetta Book Cover Art: The Definitive Reference

by J. David Spurlock, Frank Frazetta (Illustrator)

Vanguard follows last year's hit Fantastic Paintings of Frazetta book by J. David Spurlock with definitive reference on Frazetta Book Cover Art.

Frazetta is the revolutionary fantasy artist of Conan, King Kong, Death Dealer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lord of The Rings and more, whose original art sells for millions. This new 2022 Frazetta book follows last year's hit, Fantastic Paintings of Frazetta and is similar to Vanguard's earlier Frazetta Definitive Reference book. But, it is superior in at least one regard. Instead of cataloging Frazetta items with mostly smaller illustrations, this new book is devoted solely to the artist's single, most beloved venue, Book Cover Art. By focusing on this specific area, the book boasts room enough to feature every single one of Frazetta's famous and highly collectable illustrated book covers, beautifully and authentically reproduced at a larger size on a page to itself. All are presented in chronological order which, gives readers a unique ability to follow Frazetta's evolution as an artist. Accompanying text includes commentary, original publication titles, publishers, dates, and rare quotes from the artist himself. For this Definitive Reference to feature the Complete Collection of Frazetta's decades of book cover illustrations, in a single beautifully produced volume, is a dream come true for Frazetta fans, art and book collectors and historians alike.

Genres: Art, Fantasy

158 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2022

About the author

J. David Spurlock is one of America's most acclaimed comics historians. Spurlock is an award-winning author, historian, educator, creator rights advocate, documentary filmmaker and associate to star talents Steranko, Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino, Julius Schwartz, Wally Wood, Joe Simon, Frazetta, Basil Gogos, Neal Adams, Stan Lee and many more. Spurlock befriended Jack Kirby and his wife Roz, in 1977 and remained friends with the Kirbys the rest of their lives.

Spurlock's 2020 book Fantastic Paintings of Frazetta is Amazon's #1 "Hot New Release" for Individual Artists. His book How to Draw Chiller Monsters, for Random House, rose as high as #18 on the Bookspan best-seller list. Spurlock's IPPY Award-winning book, Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage, has been universally acclaimed including by MTV and by the Village Voice who proclaimed it one of The Best of 2013. Spurlock's work was so instrumental in expanding knowledge and interest into Brundage that, The Hugo Awards presented Spurlock with a Brundage-related Hugo award. In addition to the many books he has authored, Spurlock has contributed to various pop-culture magazines including The Jack Kirby Collector, Comic Book Marketplace, Comic Book Artist, Alter Ego and, the Comic-Con International Souvenir Book which has over 100,000 readers.

In 2012, Spurlock was appointed Director of the Wallace Wood Estate. Wood is the Hugo Award recognized illustrator of Galaxy and Planet Stories as well as the Eisner Hall of Fame co-creator of MAD, Mars Attacks, Daredevil and Weird Science. Spurlock is the World's leading historian on Wood. His many Wood-related projects included the Eisner, Locus and Hugo Award nominated biography Wally's World with co-author Steve Starger. The collaborations of Jack Kirby and Wallace Wood is a subject of Spurlock's writing which has been published in English, French, Portuguese, German and Spanish.

A sampling of Spurlock's speaking engagements include: Various San Diego Comic-Con Jack Kirby-related panels from 1996 through 2018 (so far); 2013 WorldCon (various lecture panels including on Robert E. Howard, Copyright Law, and on Margaret Brundage); various appearances with Stan Lee (including Dragon Con live audience of 4,600 plus TV); the Famous Monsters of Filmland convention in Indianapolis (with Basil Gogos, Harry Knowles and Bela Lugosi Jr); multiple Frank Frazetta panels at the San Diego Comic-Con; Rutgers School of Law; and University of the Arts in Philadelphia; etc. In 2011, Spurlock joined Arlen Schumer, Rand Hoppe of The Jack Kirby Museum, John Morrow and Michael Bonesteel of The Art Institute of Chicago on the New York Comic-Con panel, The Auteur Theory of Comics. In 1998, Spurlock orchestrated the Master Storytelling panel featuring Will Eisner, Jim Steranko and Neal Adams for the San Diego Comics Expo. Circa 2006, Spurlock orchestrated a similar panel with Jim Lee, Neal Adams and Steranko for New York Comic-Con.

Philanthropy: Spurlock has founded multiple scholarship funds at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He has lectured worldwide on Pop Culture and Creator Rights and has taught at the university level since 1986 including at The University of Texas, The Kubert School, The School of Visual Arts, Rutgers School of Law, and The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Contributor and/or consultant to art exhibitions include: the 2012 Allentown Art Museum exhibition, At The Edge: Art of the Fantastic; guest curator for major exhibits at Geppi's GEM Museum, The Society of Illustrators, National Arts Club, Scope during Art Basil Miami and more. Joe Kubert, J. David Spurlock and Dr Rafael Medoff spearheaded a campaign on behalf of Holocaust survivor Dina Babbitt to get her art returned to her from Auschwitz. Neal Adams, Stan Lee, Joe Simon and Jim Steranko were just a few of the notables who joined the campaign via Spurlock. The Babbitt Campaign led to the founding of Comics Creators for Holocaust Education by Dr Medoff and S

Reviews

[Florin Pitea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Highly recommended.

[Steven "Steve" · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent art book containing all of Frazetta’s book covers, paperback and hardcover, from Ace Books and Lancer Books and others. Contains interesting quotes from Frazetta and others, as well as an introductory essay. A solid contribution to Frazetta studies.

[Boyce McClain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first time I saw artist Frank Frazetta’s work was for the cover art for Lancer Books’ 1960s’ pulp reprints of Robert E. Howard’s Conan The Barbarian.

Frank’s luscious paintings captured the essence of the Cimmerian barbarian.

Enthralled and excited by his paintings I searched for other Frazetta work produced which included a whole series of Edgar Rice Burroughs paperback books from John Carter to Tarzan.

I learned Frank also did comic book work encompassing all genres. His early EC Comics work is highly sought after by collectors as is his pre-comic book code non-EC Work.

The Deluxe Slipcase Hardcover Edition: Frazetta Book Cover Art book, from Vanguard Publishing, contains not only his Conan and Burroughs covers but also encompasses his early non-fantasy, fantasy, science fiction and other book cover work spanning his long career.

For the first time ever his cover work is presented in chronological order providing readers the opportunity to witness and study his evolution as an artist.

His mastery of color combined with his eye for composition made the covers exciting and enticing, encouraging readers to purchase and read the books.

Frank’s use of colors made human (or otherwise) figures look real with soft shadows, glistening flesh highlights and the mastery of form, positioning and complexity.

Each painting was unique ranging from frozen wastelands to hot steamy tropics all reflected in the characters via their garb, weapons and poses.

What I find especially interesting about his work over the decades is how it changed.

At first his paintings (more like illustrations) consisted of line work with colors applied.

As his style matured more emphasis was placed on his color palette. Shadow and light were painted using various color overtones.

The complexity and details of his figures, their clothing, the settings and creatures also increased.
It must be noted that all of his work was done on board or canvas. No computer technology was involved.

Many artists have tried to duplicate Frank’s style. Some have come close but none can match his stunning unique painting technique or flair for eye-popping designs.

The book offers a complete collection-definitive reference and also includes a special bonus section of some of his frontis and title pieces.

The book begins with Chapter One: The Conqueror and then author J. David Spurlock provides an informative introduction in chapter one that delves into Frank’s work and career.

Chapters examine the covers and includes where they were used, the date they was produced, are sprinkled with quotes from Frazetta and include other details.

If you are a fan of Frank Frazetta’s artwork this is book is a must-have edition.

The beautifully designed slipcase and hardbound book features Frank’s paintings and the interior pages printed on heavy coated paper stock complements his art work making it look as fresh and new as the day it was first printed.

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'” — Hebrews 13:5

[Steve Guzelis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic volume from Vanguard, this features beautiful images of Frazetta’s book covers along with quotes by Frank, art directors, editors as well as author and compiler J. David Spurlock, who contributes a very informative introduction. The art is presented one cover per page (with occasional smaller inserts where pertinent) with publication and reprint information. The whole book is a stunning package at a very reasonable price.
I give it the highest recommendation possible. An absolute gem.

[Steve Ferris · Rating 5 out of 5]

"More than great quality reproductions, this comprehensive tome shows complete dedication to the history and periphery of one of the most influential and prolific illustrators the world had ever known. Everyone involved should be very proud of this one!"

- Steve Ferris

[Philip Athans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh.

Hell.

Yeah.

Full walk-through: https://youtu.be/9hzHw0u4Cio?si=MutGg...

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buying paperback books was a large part of my growing up in the 1960s. The Edgar Rice Burroughs novels (Tarzan, John Carter, and Pellucidar) were undergoing a renaissance and ACE Books (a smaller format size, which I kind of preferred, at least as a little kid) were publishing the ERB books with covers by Frank Frazetta. These were so much better than the “authorized” versions by Ballantine Books (with art by Richard Powers, which, ironically, I now appreciate a lot more and own a complete 24-book set). I’m not sure if I knew of Frazetta from comics at that young age; he did very little comics work in his career and is most famous for a little bit of work for EC and his Famous Funnies Buck Rogers cover run. But I certainly knew him from his work on the covers of Creepy and Eerie , published by Warren.

This hardbound collection published by Vanguard collects all the Frazetta book covers (paperback and hardback) from his entire career in chronological order. It’s a nice package and the reproduction is very good. A few small drawbacks: The light brown text on the glossy paper is hard to read (at least for these old eyes); the books are presented at their actual printed size, but it would have been nice to see some close-up detail work as full-page bleed images; and I wish there was more written material about the covers, rather than just Frazetta quotes cribbed from previous publications. Also, there’s a lot of mentions about how Frazetta reworked some of these covers when he got the originals back. I’d love to see that kind of thing side-by-side with the original printed covers, but maybe that’s yet another Frazetta book from this publisher, who seems to be riding the Frazetta bandwagon really hard (this is their eighth Frazetta book, not counting additional “Deluxe Editions” of pretty much all of them).

[Paul Vespignani · Rating 5 out of 5]

ERB 'N' LEGEND

This book provides the valuable service to the general public of collecting all of Frazetta's excellent paperback and hardcover book covers in one handy volume. All of the original paperbacks and hardbacks with FF covers are now out of print and some might be hard to find and/or expensive to buy on the collector's market.

I have bought every Frazetta art book that has been published(since the very first one in 1975) and even I discovered some interesting things by reading and studying this book. I was surprised to see that Frank only did ONE new paperback cover during the year of 1971(although he also did some hardcover art, magazine cover art, and movie poster art in 1971).

FBCA provides the amusing solution to the longtime mystery of why FF did 2 different cover paintings for THE MAD KING by Edgar Rice Burroughs(one excellent painting and one lousy painting) and explains how and why both paintings were respectively used for the 1960s and 1970s printings of ERB:TMK.

The physical printing of FBCA provides everything one would want from any reference book/art book: hardcovers, sewn-in binding, and nice, thick paper stock. It is a high quality production all the way. The retail price of $39.95 for the regular edition is a crazy good bargain, especially in the inflationary times we are currently living in.-PV

[Doug Downing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great fun to page through! It's enlightening to see Frazetta's work in its original context, as commissioned cover illustrations to paperbacks and hardcovers. In addition, you get to see the paintings in their earliest published incarnations, before they've been modified any further by the artist (as Frazetta was wont to do). The chronological presentation is a plus.

I've seen a few grumblings about image quality, but all in all, it looks great to me, competitive with other art books and with the covers themselves. Keep in mind, these are reproductions of reproductions—this is perhaps not the optimum means by which to view the artwork itself. But this is a great complement to other resources and quite visually satisfying, with all paperbacks presented a bit larger than their original published size (and little moiré in sight). Adding further value here are the anecdotes supplied for many pieces, often from the artist himself; they seem well-curated. (Who knew the full story behind the two different covers for The Mad King?)

Ironically, the cover of this book is a bit clunky, but the interiors are well-designed, attractive, and easy to read. They even appropriated the old Ace ERB sci-fi classic typeface! Sadly, Warren magazine covers are not within this collection's purview, but you will see a few that were repurposed for book usage.

[Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent images of the book cover art. The text for the entire book was very thin, and about 30% darkness making it very hard to read. 2 pages had the art even 60% from full 100% darks. When the art ran over to the back cover (wraparound) they usually failed to show it. Just telling us we were missing something. Some images had not extra info about them. So clearly research was rushed for this. Sometimes we got how much a painting sold for etc, but rarely insight about how the cover was created or inspired. Rarely was the size of the original or the medium used mentioned. A few times the description was under the wrong image if two images were on a page. Needed a solid concept, (Get more interviews or find more) more background, a better editor. His son Frank Jr could of added way more.
(I had the pleasure of visiting the Frazetta Museum in 2021 and met Frank Jr and his wife who run the museum and give the tours. I highly recommend fans of Frank to visit it in Stroudsburg, PA.)

[Greg L Goldstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific reference volume --- I only wish something like this had existed when I was a kid and trying to track all these volumes down at used bookstores and flea markets!

A few minor quibbles --- The author often make references to Frank's (or publisher's) artistic revisions but multiple versions are not typically shown. The font/color of the text is difficult to read --- although frankly much of it is blurbs from previous Frazetta interviews and sometimes not that illuminating if you are already a fan.

Still, wonderful to finally have these book covers logically presented in one place!

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

The design of this book is sort of baffling, It is large in dimension but taken up with huge amounts of white space, and a tiny pencil thin font with the detail text, leaving smaller versions of the artwork on display. Perhaps the idea was to give the feel of an uncrowded museum exhibit, but I just wanted to see more of the art!

[boofykins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection of all of Frazetta's book covers!

The book features an introduction of sorts with a brief history of Frazetta's work in the field of paperback books and most of the covers have a little blurb featuring a quote from Frazetta himself, one of his peers, or a Frazetta historian, all relevant to the piece it accompanies.

Pretty cool publication!

[C.A. A. Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some wonderful book cover art. Many of the pictures take me back to my early days at work and visiting bookstores during my lunch breaks. The science fiction and fantasy sections were like an Aladdin's cave of fabulous front covers. Many are within the pages of this splendid book.

[Pat Snyder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan. This appears to be an art book from the cover but it’s rather a book full of the paperback scans without quality control. Save your money.

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can never go wrong looking at a book about my all time favorite artist. Beautiful pics collected in this volume Highly recommended